Canyons
by Grimlock Sovereignty
Summary: This was the eighth time Arcee had slipped off into Bumblebee's scouting patrols just to meet up with Starscream again. They picked a perfect location, a perfect timing, and an even better escape route to get there. And Arcee has to admit it, she misses him when he has to go face Megatron again. (StarCee) (One-Shot)


**Sorry if they seem OOC to you. Enjoy.**

The dull color of orange and red rocks filled her vision as she left the road from the Autobot's secret base. The sea-blue colored sky and the white, fluffy clouds bouncing overhead in the sky reminded the dark azure motorcycle of him.

The red colored rocks were soon all she could see. Again, a strange and inquisitive feeling hit her in the chest every time she snuck out of the Autobot base to see him again. Her blue optics, with a hint of pale pink to go around the outer optic, narrowed with satisfied contentment. It was again the next time to see her secret Decepticon friend, Starscream.

Starscream. Deranged sometimes and maybe even shrewd, he was the biggest, most traitorous bastard she could ever even remember seeing. He was already being risky and ludicrous for even coming out into the sweltering canyon just to see her an eighth time. Megatron, luckily, hadn't noticed him slip out with permission from Knock Out.

Yes, Starscream was punished for being late once. Megatron was infuriated, taking all of his built up anger onto the much smaller Decepticon and beating his wings, arms, and legs into a scrap heap. Knout Out had told him how lucky he was for not losing a limb, and Starscream remained on life support for a day or so.

Arcee wanted _very_ badly every day after that to beat the Lord Megatron into a reduced scrap pile to defile because of his punishment on her friend. In fact, her closest friend. Jack started to turn almost sexually attracted to her and the thought punished her mind.

In fact, she writhed when she slept because of the thought.

When Arcee told Starscream her feelings about what Jack might have sawn her as, Starscream grew aggressive. Little did Arcee care for the act, nor did she find it troubling. Amusing was a better answer. Her optic's ridge lifted when she saw his reaction.

Arcee knew the two of them shared a… secluded friendship. They spoke about it to no one. Starscream never piped in about it to Megatron, and Arcee never did the same to Jack or maybe Optimus Prime. Never a word.

Arcee felt sympathetic every time she saw Starscream. Misunderstood and paranoid, he had come across her one night when she found him, concealing from a battle and shaking like a termite from fear of going back to Megatron after coming back empty handed with no Energon.

And thus, from there, the two started to meet with each other. They met little to not once within a month or so. Sometimes they could barely see each other for more than five simple minutes. But tonight was an easy one; at least it was for Arcee. She simply piped in to take over Bumblebee's scouting patrol and went off.

And it was just that easy for her.

Jack had asked her why she wanted more work to do that involved escaping the barriers of the Autobots base, but her answer remained the same as it had the first time he asked her about this plight.

"Optimus needs all the help he can get, Jack," she had said when he asked. "Even if it means not seeing you more, or helping you with a project, I need to get this done. It's for… Optimus."

Lies. All of it. She wasn't doing a thing to help Optimus or the rest of the Autobots when she snuck out of the base and down the torrid canyons. When it was a patrol, much like it was today, it was much simpler for her to liberate from the camp. When she was late on patrol, her excuse would be MECH technology, using stealth and attacking her.

Sometimes, it was running errands, like finding a small supply of Energon in the canyons nearby and going to scout it out to salvage some up. But when she returned from the missions empty handed, she said she didn't find any Energon.

A lot of those missions, Starscream himself would come by with a little extra Energon from the Decepticon's ship to allow her to bring it back to the Autobots. Arcee didn't know why he did it, but he did, and she cared about the action.

She used her raven black wheels to turn among the crimson colored floor of the canyons, converting left and then seeing a large arch overhead, which she slid underneath with ease and used some extra horsepower to grind faster among the stones. She loved the moments in which she could talk to Starscream. He was her closest friend.

You would think the Autobot's held that deep in their hearts, the honor of calling a close friend of Arcee's their own. But no, everyone was different ever since Megatron called the dead down upon the Autobots after learning their base's location within Jasper, Nevada. It resulted in tragedy for all of them, and even Optimus Prime fell ill to the darkness after a while.

Starscream was Arcee's last resolution to her problems.

He made her quiver with anger at times when he mentioned Cliffjumper and Tailgate. She ignored it after a while, but she still blinked a finger when it was mentioned. He gave her that ignorant, arrogant, sly smile that he always did when he dared to say it. The only consequence was her edging out her blaster at his face.

Which always shut him up. Of course it was playful, she never had any intentions of harming him or causing him pain after the two of them became friends.

It was only a few more minutes before she hit the rendezvous point with Starscream. She could imagine if he was late. It was usually the case, due to the fact it was a much harder and a far more convoluted process than it was for her.

After a few more minutes of riding the red, hot dunes of the canyons, she could see the small ridge, covered by rocks and stones overhead, with only a small entrance in the way. It was a perfect hiding spot, and the timing was impeccable. She boosted her engine against the ground, making pebbles spark as she met with the location in which she sat down.

Of course, as her metal foot made contact with the ground, there was no Starscream in sight. Late, just like she had guessed. It met her with little to no surprise. All of the times he was late with his business. Knock Out was probably watching him in the ship, on the life support slab.

So now, it was time to sit on the floor of the cave, with her dark blue arms crossed around her knees and her fingers tapping on her caps, she decided it would be best to wait. She felt the urge to rest her eyes, but she fought to stay awake, for she would not want Starscream to come down from the sky with his magnificent wings, and see her upon dormancy.

And she would fall asleep, making her late in the morning with the Autobots pacing, wondering where she was and trying to track her to her coordinates. She always shut her Coms offline before she arrived; she didn't want to be tracked.

Finally, after gazing into the setting sun and the pink color of the glorious sky, she could hear the roar of a jet engine, and her spark leapt with joy, and happily enough for herself, she did not. It was Starscream, and he had arrived.

With a magnetic twist of his arms and a few flings of his legs, there landed the Decepticon, not the fighter jet. Arcee fought down her growing joy, and she could see that long, arrogant grin from Starscream across the ground, his leg tapping against the earth.

"Late as usual?" Arcee asked, standing from her serene spot on the ground and placing one of her hands firmly on her hip as she let the tension in one of her legs drop, allowing the opposite hip to rise with the pressure.

"Of course," Starscream snorted. "Since when am I not?"

"I can't say you're wrong."

Starscream snorted as he sat down in the cave and crossed one of his legs over the other. He used his red optics to fixate on her, and he again gave that annoying grin of his. "I see Cliffjumper isn't here to accompany you?"

Arcee rolled her eyes, her blue and pink optics glinting in the light of the sun not too far away from where she stood, and she flashed her arm up, revealing her blaster in the place of her metallic fingers and she glanced down at the situated Decepticon.

Starscream gave off a slow laugh, his legs quivering. Not in fear, but paranoia.

"No, he's not," Arcee grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest once more. Starscream glowered until her blaster was revolutionized back into her normal hand. His once quivering legs dropped with ease, before he grinned again.

"Sneaking away without the help of Knock Out proves a challenge," chided the Commander with a flick of his head towards the entrance. "Megatron, er, I mean _Lord_ Megatron will not be pleased to see me away."

Arcee shot him a compassionate look. He snuck away, with the threat of Megatron on his shoulders and the careful eyes of Soundwave on him, just to make sure that his meeting with her went through to how it was supposed to. The thought made her legs twitch, and her beautiful optics gleamed.

She gave the taller Cybertronian an admiring, sympathetic look. "He didn't injure you last time?"

"Oh, no, he got his share," Starscream grumbled, lifting his arms to allow her to see torn metal from his winds, punctured and the paint getting rubbed off from them. "It takes forever to repair that."

Arcee recoiled to the wound, and she let her long, raven fingers to trace the marks and scratches, making the Commander blanch from her more soothing and placid touch. She felt the heat from her brush of his wings, and she withdrew her parted fingers. Starscream only eyed her from where he sat before glancing down at his wings.

"I want to kill Megatron for what he does to you," Arcee breathed, grabbing the Decepticon's large, exaggerated chin and pushing their faces closer together, so close she thought she could hear the beat of his spark in his chest.

The contact of her alloy fingers made Starscream wince again, yet he seemed more relaxed. She pulled away from her friendly facial embrace, and she lifted her optic's eye ridge at his grimace. He turned his optics to her and grinned.

"I'm satisfied that you care," he beamed, turning his head sharply to look away from her. "Patrol for Bumblebee, or looking for more Energon?"

"Scouting patrol," Arcee breathed, plopping down next to him, the metal of their bodies nearly touching. "It was the only thing I could do today. If I had picked looking for more Energon, Bumblebee might have come across me here in the canyon. I won't risk that."

"Oh, but with my late self I'm sure Bumblebee would have been long gone," Starscream encouraged, with a rock of his head. "It wouldn't have mattered what you pick."

Arcee almost laughed. "That's what they want you to think."

Starscream turned to face her. "I'm sure," he boasted. Only moments after his words, short yet scattered spasms of sodden drops started down pouring outside. "Oh." Starscream crawled to the end of the cavern in which he looked outside. "It's raining."

Arcee crawled forward, and she prolonged her neck to look at the wet, thick raindrops falling outside of their location. She saw a vicious crack of lightning in the sky, and then it was followed moments after with a detonation of thunder, making Starscream yelp with surprise, before shooting back into the cavern.

The female Autobot turned back at him, with more amusement written across her face like a horse running on a trail, and she spun back at the crippled Decepticon. "Afraid of a little thunder and lightning, Starscream?"

The consternated Cybertronian looked back at her, with his chest having and his wings shaking from the brunt of the sound, and then shook his head. "It could be an omen of Lord Megatron discovering us!"

Arcee shook her head, bounding down the few stones to meet closer with Starscream, rigidly placing a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to look at her, her gaze still touched with amusement, yet that sympathetic look returned. "Megatron is far from here."

"Not Soundwave. He hears all," Starscream chided. "It won't be long before that drone, Laserbeak, finally finds us out here!"

"You're paranoid!" exclaimed Arcee, shoving Starscream, making the larger 'Con fall onto the floor of the cave. He looked up, bewildered, before he grinned again, mostly at her tug of playfulness.

"I might very well be so," he stated.

Arcee inhaled before she plopped down on Starscream's broad chest and sighed. She blinked her optics before she nestled down onto his side, making Starscream stir from his wounds, yet he didn't perplex her while she sat there.

"So, what about you and Jack?" he asked, looking up from the rock in which he rested on.

"What about us?" Arcee asked, spinning her head not unlike an owl's to face the winged Decepticon. "I'm just his guardian."

"That's what _he_ is to _you_ ," Starscream griped. "But what about what _you_ are to _him_? You notified me about your suspicions about… a particular human feeling called 'sexual likeliness' from him. Not confirmed, you said, but you feel it ends that way?"

Arcee nodded and sighed. "It used to be just me and Jack, junior partners. But after I saved him from Airachnid the day that Megatron attacked the Autobot's base, he seems to see me a different way. I tried not to be bothered by it. But it makes me… itch."

Starscream seemed puzzled, if not more than confused. "Itch?"

"Not like that," Arcee defended herself. "I mean it makes me feel weird. Watched, almost. And I feel when I go on patrols or when I slip away with you, I feel it's the only time and place I'm not eyed in… uncaring ways."

Starscream let his large, claw-like fingers grind into the earth beneath them. "That blasted Jack!" he seethed. "I'll rip his eyes clean from his sockets!"

Arcee shot up in alarm. "Look, calm down!" she pleaded. "I have this situation under control and I don't need you to interfere with me and Jack. I'll work it out with him. Nothing violent… please."

Starscream lowered his once again lifted fist, and he sighed, shallowly. "Alright, fine."

Arcee smiled up at him, and placed her head down once again on his chest before exhaling profoundly. Starscream deviated, before he placed one of his large, emaciated fingers on her shoulder and pressed her closer into his chest.

Arcee felt like sleeping there, in the cavern inside of the deep-seated canyons along there with Starscream, staring at the sky that just sparkled on the other side of the cave. It was peaceful, calm, and utterly quiet. The only sound Arcee could hear was the sound of Starscream's raspy breaths, though Cybertronians didn't need to breathe.

She paused briefly, before craning her head just slightly to see Starscream's arrogant yet quite appealing facial features. "Do you think Soundwave really will hear us?"

Starscream took a long glance downwards to her, before he shrugged. "Maybe. Laserbeak could have followed me here to make sure I wasn't doing anything suspicious. That Megatron follower doesn't trust me. In fact, he doesn't trust anyone."

"I see why," Arcee nearly taunted. Starscream curled his lip, though knowing that Arcee made no attempt to offend him or to even shame him because of his rebellious moves against his master, Megatron.

"He could have already warned Lord Megatron." Starscream looked back to the entrance of the caves, and he gave a shudder. "Who knows, this may be the last time I will ever get to see you if that was the case. Lord Megatron would surely beat me into spare parts for Knock Out!"

Arcee growled. "And Knock Out would…?"

"Do what he always does. Use me for 'upgrades' for the weaker Decepticons."

Arcee grunted before nodding. "I doubt they know you're here."

"You never know," Starscream paused.

"How long will you get to stay today, Starscream?" asked Arcee, nodding her head back to the entrance of the cave and then glancing sideways at him. "Surely not anytime soon?"

"I need to be back by sun-down," Starscream rasped.

Arcee curled her fingers together. "That's in thirty minutes!"

"I know, I know," Starscream coughed. "Looks like we need to make the most of it, then."

"Of course," Arcee purred, rubbing her head against the metal on his chest. "Optimus and Bumblebee will scout for me if I don't return in a reasonable amount of time anyway."

Starscream curled his lip. "They always do, don't they?"

"Yes," Arcee said. "But we have a perfect spot! They will never find us if we were to fall late. The Autobots will worry about me, but most of them are too large to fit in here anyway. I _am_ the smallest of our kind."

Starscream nodded. "And I am hardly much larger than you are to them. That's why both of us can fit in here. If anyone was to be taller than me, they wouldn't fit. You, on the other hand, can fit in Airachnid's holes just like I can."

"So we both fit in close spaces," Arcee shrugged.

"Indeed."

More thunder and lightning fractured the sky and scored the clouds and air around them. Starscream shivered, with the deep thought of it almost being an omen, but Arcee's previous words soothed him to the spark.

Arcee covered her head with worry-free calmness while they watched the rain pour outside. Starscream allowed Arcee to hook her own thin fingers across his hipline and condensed on his lower abdomen. Starscream slightly twitched with the vehement action, yet he stayed harmonious.

Time passed, slow and almost lovely, as Arcee rested her smaller, less narrow head on the Decepticon, making the larger Cybertronian squall for chest room, but he wasn't going to disturb her, as her azure optics blinked with the passionate quietness of the cavern around them. Starscream started to let his eyes rest to the sound of the rain.

More minutes passed, before finally Starscream opened his optics and looked around. He knew it was sundown. The air was thick and grey, with opaque rain falling and the sky thickened with the same colored ashen from the air. It was an almost… romantic setting.

Arcee looked about, turning to the substantial rainfall and then sighed, before pressing upwards with her body, to see Starscream looking around much like she had been, and then his optics were fixated on her when she stood.

"Let's get a look outside, real quick," she suggested, turning to the entrance of the cave and then slipped behind the rock and disappeared from eyesight. She could see the magnificent rain, weeping from the sky and abolishing to the ground, making the crimson canyon floor turn a darker shade of red.

Sooner than later, Starscream dipped next to her after avoiding some more rocks and stones inside of the cave. His dark red optics were pausing on the setting. A beautiful gust of wind, with the same muggy air and thick grey color. Starscream sighed to the wind that rushed between the metal on his body, and he turned back to Arcee.

"A beautiful night, is it not?" he asked.

"It is," Arcee proclaimed, pressing her body into his and snuggling her head into the crook of the larger Cybertronian's neck, making his body go rigid with the element of surprise and he crooned his eyes down at the smaller Autobot, her blue paintjob thick with rain.

Starscream rested his hand on her waist, making her own self go stiff, and then he rested his pretentious chin on her head, the two of them close enough to be absorbing each other's Energon. Arcee looked back at his own blood-like optics and found herself staring right at the rich color.

"You have to be going now, don't you?" she asked, looking at his slim yet thin form. "Back to the Decepticons?"

"Yes," he growled, softly, not because of her question but because of the thought, going back to Megatron and possibly getting beat until he could no longer stand, until his body convulsed and his legs shivered and oscillated, until his optics could only see blurry, and until his arms were too anemic to even lift Laserbeak, quite a light drone for a Cybertronian.

Starscream couldn't stand the thought. Laying down on a life support slab until he went preposterous even for a Decepticon, with Knock Out taking care of him for the days to follow after his scraping, with the icy blue coolant to be leaking from his excessive wounds.

The Decepticon shook his head, clearing the thought out of his head like pushing back a growing anger, he pushed his and her head together, the two of them touching past the comfort zone, and he whimpered with paranoia. "I'll be fine."

Arcee absorbed his metallic feel, before she withdrew from his facial, more romantic than friendly, much to Arcee's shock and growing red in her face, and she eyed his optics before nodding her head.

"I sure hope so," she breathed. "I won't allow Megatron to so much as lay another finger on you. I can promise that."

"Don't." Starscream turned back to the smaller 'Bot and sighed. "Going against Megatron, uhum, I mean _Lord Megatron_ , for the second time, would be a mistake. He would easily win against you, and then I wouldn't forgive him."

"Why wouldn't you forgive him?" Arcee questioned, her face and his only inches apart, due to the closed and compact area where they sat, with slight rain pushing against their metal bodies, and their hands wrapped over one another's.

He gave her that arrogant grin, and he curled his large eyebrows. "Because you're my closest friend."

Her optic ridge lifted again.

"You are the only person who bothers to listen. I am misunderstood for who I am and what I do to other people. I may not seem so much like a good person to the Autobots, but that's because I just do what I am told," Starscream retorted to her slight grin.

"I can imagine. So much as fall a little out of line, and you get reduced to scrap metal," Arcee breathed.

"Yes," Starscream said, with a roll of his shoulders and pausing. "I need to get going. I have enjoyed seeing you again, Arcee."

"And likewise, Starscream." Arcee briefly to a step forward to the standing Decepticon and encased her arms around his collar, pulling him into a tight embrace, and the larger Cybertronian blinked with surprise, before he pushed his arms around her stomach and abdomen, returning the embrace.

"Don't get lost out there," he taunted, as he withdrew from her arms and grinned that arrogant grin. Arcee only rolled her eyes, before Starscream nodded his head in farewell, and then turning into a jet and blasting off over the hills of the canyons.

Arcee watched his beautiful streams fall after his departure, and with a sigh, she transformed into her azure motorcycle, before streaking her tires into the crimson-ridden earth and started off from the location in which the two met.

She knew it would be another month or so before she could so much as glimpse seeing him again. He would probably remained wounded if Megatron was to seriously beat him, but he was only concerned about that if he was to be late, in which the two of them made sure to never fall past their time.

But she knew one thing again; this would never be the last time she would ride again on the sandy floor of Jasper, Nevada to see Starscream again.

No, she would ride once more across the canyon floors to see her best friend again. One day.


End file.
